


Burn It Down

by mostladylikeladythateverladied



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 17:44:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13299990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mostladylikeladythateverladied/pseuds/mostladylikeladythateverladied
Summary: In the aftermath of discovering the truth at the Origin Village, Mikleo lashes out against the link between him and his murderer.





	Burn It Down

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to tumblr

Lohgrin didn’t have much in the way of accommodations for their stay, but the tents provided to the Shepherd and his seraphim suited Sorey just fine. Edna grumbled, but it was a token protest at best. An attempt at normalcy that utterly failed when everything was so blatantly different among them.

The drinks and food they usually shared with good cheer and smiles were forfeit for the night. They crawled into their rented tents quietly and let the evening sunset overhead. 

Sorey shared his tent with Mikleo. He’d asked the others to not occupy their vessel for this one night and requested they spend the extra money to give them all a place to sleep. The others obliged, understanding Sorey’s intent.

He wasn’t surprised at all when he heard his dearest and deeply hurt friend exit the tent and wander off into the night. He followed because he would never let Mikleo deal with the painful truth on his own.

Mikleo went to the monolith and upon drawing closer Sorey saw he brought the Celestial Record with him. He gripped it tight to his chest as he stared up at the large rock.

“Mikleo…” Sorey hesitantly began, then failed to find the words of comfort Mikleo needed. He couldn’t possibly understand what Mikleo was going through. Just how was Mikleo meant to come to terms with his own murder? Just how was Sorey supposed to help him?

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Mikleo asked without turning around. His voice held so much agony it gripped Sorey’s heart and threatened to rip it from his chest.

“They wanted to protect you,” Sorey answered and immediately regretted it. It was cheap answer and Mikleo deserved better but Sorey wanted Mikleo’s pain to ease so badly he stuttered out the first response that came to mind.

Mikleo snorted. “Protect me? I’m not a child, Sorey, I haven’t been for years. They knew one day we’d be Shepherd and Sub Lord. They knew I’d find out. There’s no point in protecting me from the inevitable. It would have been better to find out from Gramps than…like this.”

Mikleo cast his gaze downward. Sorey came close enough to touch Mikleo, but Mikleo jerked away.

“Don’t do this, Mikleo. Don’t shut me out,” Sorey spoke gently. There had never been walls between them. Sorey didn’t want any to be built up now, not when Mikleo needed him the most.

“How are you not angry?!” Mikleo was suddenly yelling and gripping the book in his arms so tightly, Sorey could see his Mikleo’s nails digging into the cover after he whirled around. “All this time we…we’ve been pouring over this thing!” Mikleo flourished the Celestial Record violently in Sorey’s direction. “And we only now find out it was written by the man that began the Age of Chaos? A man who…who…”

Mikleo sobbed, Sorey’s heart shattered, and Mikleo turned away and stomped towards a brazier that lit the monolith’s courtyard. He held the book over the flame.

Sorey rushed forward and grasped the book before Mikleo could drop it. Mikleo tried to yank the tome away but Sorey held fast.

“What are you doing, Mikleo?!” Sorey demanded as he fought to save the book from the flame.

“I don’t want to look at it anymore! I don’t want to ever read it or think about this thing ever again!”

“Mikleo, stop! You aren’t thinking straight, just listen to yourself!”

“I hear myself just fine! You’re the one that wants to hang on to a book written by the man that  _killed me_!” Mikleo shrieked. His voice cracked like a whip and shocked Sorey into stillness.

Mikleo’s thunderous fury was hiding a torrent of sorrow. Sorey could see it in his eyes. Those beautiful, lavender eyes that once looked upon this book with the same wonder Sorey did. The flickering flames within the brazier made harsh shadows dance against his skin, reflected by his tears.

“Is that really how you feel?” Sorey asked calmly. His initial shock and panic were banished by the light of realization. 

“Yes! Of course!” Mikleo snapped back. He pulled at the book but Sorey didn’t budge.

“If this book only brings you pain then I’ll gladly burn it, Mikleo. No book, no matter how important it is, is worth keeping if it hurts you. But I need to know if that’s honestly how you feel.”

Mikleo blinked. His tears fell into the brazier and sizzled against the hot iron. He looked at the book, then to Sorey, then back again to the book.

“You know what I see when I look at the Celestial Record, Mikleo? I don’t see its author. I see  _you_. I see the day Gramps first gave it to us and we learned to read with it. I see the coffee stain you spilled on it when you tried to drink from Mason’s cup and it was so gross you spit it out. I see the little rip on the twenty-eighth page from when I tickled you and you accidentally tore it. I see the day I kissed you for the first time because you get that cute furrow in between your eyebrows when you’re really concentrating on reading and I couldn’t help myself.

“Most of all, I see our dream.  _Our_  dream. The dream that humans and seraphim can live together so everyone can be as happy as I am, as blessed as I am to know a seraph like  _you_.”

Mikleo’s grip on the book slackened. His arms fell to his sides and he buried his face in his hands. Sorey tossed the book aside and embraced Mikleo.

“Nothing compares to you, Mikleo. So if the pain is too much, if it truly overwhelms all the happiness we’ve attached to that book, then I will put it to the flames myself. I won’t let it cause you pain. I won’t cling to  _anything_  that causes you pain. But I don’t think this is what you really want.”

Mikleo shook his head vigorously against Sorey’s chest. He sobbed again, but this time it sounded more like catharsis than agony.

“You wrote ‘I love you, Mikleo’ in the margins of every page that mentions water seraphim,” Mikleo quietly murmured. He slid his hands up Sorey’s chest and linked his fingers together behind Sorey’s neck. Sorey curled in, surrounding Mikleo in warmth.

“I did, because it’s true,” Sorey cheerfully confirmed. Mikleo laughed shakily and there was no better sound Sorey’s ears had ever heard.

“And page sixty-seven?” Mikleo prompted with growing cheer.

“There’s a whole conversation written out in between the illustrations. I was sick and lost my voice so you refused to talk too, and we wrote to each other instead. We hid messages in the pictures.”

“I don’t want to throw it away,” Mikleo admitted softly. “It was too much and I…”

“I know, Mikleo. I understand.”


End file.
